The Illinois State High School Association just postponed 4 State Championship games scheduled to be played tomorrow at Illinois State in Bloomington.  Have any D3 playoff games ever been postponed?

Quote from: USee on November 25, 2025, 05:56:18 PMWheaton v Wartburg is a great matchup. Wheaton has a legit offense  and an opportunistic defense. Wartburg has a legit defense and a ball control, physical offense. Its strength on strength. Wartburgs rush defense is #4 in the country and they are the real deal, giving up 43 yds a game on the ground. They shutout UW Stout, held Coe to 24 yds rushing (averaged 220 yds) and Central to 34 yds rushing (avg 180). They play mostly zone defense and don't blitz much at all. Their DL is dominant. They have 3 of 4 with double digit tackles for loss and their MLB is DPOY in the ARC. 26 sacks in 10 games almost all of which are the DL as they don't blitz. The most impressive thing about their DL is they are all good at getting off blocks. They have given up some pass yds but when you get in the redzone, that zone gets awfully tight. They are the #5 scoring defense for a reason.  they sit back in a zone and keep everything in front of them and then come up and gang tackle aggressively. They have 14 Interceptions on the season, which you would expect out of a zone team. It takes a disciplined and physical offense to drive the ball the length of the field without making a mistake (TFL, fumble, INT, sack) and Wartburg defense are great tacklers so they don't give up much Yds after contact. Wheaton has its work cut out for them.

That said, Forcucci and Co. are well suited for this. They have a stable of receivers and running backs that make them difficult to defend and he gets rid of the ball  quickly. If the Wheaton OL holds up against this DL I think the Thunder can score. This defense isn't as good as NCC but it's better than Mt Union's defense.

Wartburgs offense looks a lot like Wheaton. The difference is Wartburg is absolutely committed to the run game. They run it 60-65% of the time and they won't get away from that if they don't have to. Yet their QB gets rid of the ball quickly and completes 63% of his passes to a diverse group of WR's (sound familiar?). The QB was 2nd team all ARC and he can make all the throws. I saw him throw a 15 yd out cut from the right hash to a WR who was pretty well covered and he completed it outside the left numbers. Toughest throw in football to make. 

Hazzbeen mentioned Wheaton will have to score in the 20+ pt range to win and I think that's right. If Wheaton can put up 24-34 pts that gives them a great chance. Defensively, the Thunder have to avoid big plays and maintain gap discipline on defense. And if you can get Dodd (Wartburg QB) off his first read he has a tendency to hold the ball and you can get to him.

I can't imagine what Logan Hansen put into his flux capacitor to make Wheaton a 5.3pt favorite on the road to his alma maters stadium, but here we are. This time I hope he's right.

Usee,

keep your eye on #98 DT.  He gave Maples all he could handle as a freshman back in 2023.

Quote from: Ccrfer on November 15, 2025, 10:41:52 PM

Quote from: hazzben on November 15, 2025, 08:29:01 PMHello NCC, looks like we get to be "quad-mates" as it were! Here's to holding serve and a date in Naperville down the road!

Jaran Roste is not invited

He may still have a year of eligibility

Quote from: hazzben on November 15, 2025, 08:29:01 PMHello NCC, looks like we get to be "quad-mates" as it were! Here's to holding serve and a date in Naperville down the road!

Jaran Roste is not invited

If it is (W)abash, then for the sake of the Monon, DePau(w) is coming along too. Their longest travel destination in CCIW would be shorter than 1/2 of their NCAC rivals.

Adding CU(W) could then bring it back to an even #

Or another option -using my best SNL Gilda BaaBaa WahWah voice -"Au(w)o(w)a"

Quote from: robertgoulet on September 11, 2025, 04:49:55 PM

Quote from: Ccrfer on September 11, 2025, 04:38:05 PMQ's post includes a "."

Wabash

That would certainly be something. College Conference of Illinois and Wiscoabash.

Bobby G
How many teams in the Big 10?

Q's post includes a "."

Wabash

The Green Knights are NACC short timers. I have yet to make it up to SNC but it's not hard to have a good time anywhere north of the cheddar curtain. Just stick to encased meats, curds and your favorite New Glarus brew and you'll be fine.

How about Greenfield U?

Quote from: GU1999 on April 16, 2025, 12:54:24 PMI was at the Thunderdome yesterday.  Stunning day.  All credit to RKFD, they came with a hitting plan and they executed.  9 XBH in game one (4 HR) and the homer in the 11th inning of the second game was the longest HR I have seen in my three years watching games at CUC.  Went through the tops of the trees on the other side of Division St.  Would not surprise me if it hit the houses on a fly.  K. Bergstrom (Jr. Harlem HS), who hit that bomb, is a real problem.  He hit his 10th and 11th HR yesterday. 

40 years ago I gave up a homer to the Illinois Tech (IIT) Catcher that broke windows at the Fenwick Priory.

Quote from: RFMichigan on April 08, 2025, 02:08:59 PM

Quote from: Gregulator316 on February 21, 2025, 12:36:07 PMI saw that Charlie Drewek moved from DC at St. Norbert to DC at Concordia chi. 
Interesting move going from the Best Defense in the conference to the worst. I'm curious to see how much the Cougars can improve in his first year running that D.

I am pleased to see this. CUC's defense literally has nowhere to go but up as they had the worst scoring defense in the country last year. I'm curious what lured him to River Forest.

Johnnie's Beef

Quote from: robertgoulet on December 21, 2024, 04:44:22 PMSomeone said this is going to be like Muhlenberg. Big difference so far is that the Muhl game was marred by a bunch of self inflicted wounds that helped NCC. This has been straight domination everywhere.

42-0 NCC with a couple min left in 1st half.

Bobby G there was absolutely no game prediction in my post.  my comparison was based solely on the location of the schools and the pedigree/resume of the teams coming into the semis.

Quote from: USee on December 19, 2024, 06:36:48 PMLooking at the NCC v Susquehanna game and after reading the piece on the front page of D3Football.com I was thinking, could Susquehanna be this years Cortland? It's certainly possible.

Last year going into the Stagg bowl here were the NCAA stats and national rankings:

NCC:
Offense #1; #2 rushing offense, #81 passing offense
Defense #38; #19 rushing defense, #103 pass defense

Cortland:
Offense: #7; #18 rush offense, #34 pass offense
Defense: #68; #117 rush defense, #49 pass defense

This game delivered. Both teams lived up to their offensive rankings and put up numbers larger than their season averages. Defensively both seemed to underperform their season long rankings. Of course NCC's injuries on the defensive side in the championship game are well documented and likely a factor. I don't know what Cortland's injury situation was.

This year NCC and Susquehanna come in with the following stats:

North Central:
Offense: #2; #3 rushing offense, #73 passing offense
Defense: #26; #31 rushing defense, #48 passing defense

Susquehanna:
Offense: #3; #9 rushing offense, #40 passing offense
Defense: #131; #37 rushing defense, #217 passing defense

This game looks to be a similar matchup to last year's Cortland game on the offensive side of the ball. North Central virtually the same as last year and Susq even a little better than Cortland's last year. Defensively, though there is a bigger discrepancy. NCC's defense is better (and appears healthy) mainly on the back end and Susq defense is significantly lower rated than Cortland's was. While Susq rushing defense is markedly better than Cortand's, their pass defense appears much worse.

What all this means is open to interpretation. I expect a lot of fireworks on Saturday and a fairly high scoring affair. Can NCC slow down the River Hawks run game like they did Salisbury? Can Susq get any stops at all against NCC's high powered run game?

This game doesn't scream blowout to me and I think Susquehanna comes in with a lot of confidence (rightfully) having beaten St Johns on the road and Bethel at home back to back.

Susquehanna is the 2024 version of 2019 Muhlenberg

Quote from: WRMUalum13 on November 29, 2024, 07:13:49 PMTotally off-topic but does anyone know what happened to the "Welcome to the Machine" banner that used to be hung on the fence past the South endzone? I only remember seeing it during the playoffs, don't remember seeing it since like 2015 or so.

The banner was definitely up back on 11/30/19. It was noticeably absent for our 2021 return visit to East Naperville, OH.

My Eighth grade self was at the 1979 Vikings 10-7 win at Wheaton.  While I'd love to root for a repeat performance, a loss will lower Wheaties NPI and could potentially cost my Cardinals a #1 playoff seeding.

Go Thunder?